Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. It’s when we remember the 1929 Chicago slaying of seven gangsters orchestrated by Al Capone. Just kidding. Of course, I am referring to the annual celebration of love and its accompanying obligation to ply one’s beloved with flowers, fancy chocolates, battery-operated sex toys, what have you. Hey, I don’t judge.
But you also can’t go wrong immersing yourself in movie romance. Catching a film in 2025 is certainly more economical than splurging on a bouquet of roses or an overpriced restaurant. Moreover, streaming a movie in the comfort of your home even works for individuals who are not in a relationship and perhaps eager to get past a special day that was invented to enrich florists and greeting-card manufacturers.
But let’s not settle for the blockbuster romantic comedies we all know. Here are nine recommendations for more off-the-beaten-path romance:
City Lights (1931)
City Lights might be the first great romcom of the talking-film era, although it’s not a talkie. Even though silent movies were nearly dead by 1931, Charlie Chaplin took advantage of the new technology only for a synchronized music score and a smattering of sound effects. Dialogue was an indulgence Chaplin didn’t need in this story of his Little Tramp character smitten by a blind flower girl (Virginia Cherrill) who mistakes him for a millionaire. Chaplin’s penchant for sentimentality can be mawkish by contemporary standards, but City Lights deftly navigates that tightrope. His perfectionism as a director forced the movie shoot to drag on for more than a year. Chaplin subjected his actors to hundreds of takes, replaced one of the main players halfway through filming and came close to firing Cherrill. In the end, the ordeal was worth it. City Lights is arguably Chaplin’s greatest picture, a brilliant blend of slapstick and sentimentality — and its heart-wrenching closing shot is one for the ages. (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Max, Criterion Channel, Tubi and YouTube)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Extramarital affairs can be a tough draw for a movie audience, especially during World War II, when a fair number of young men fighting to save democracy were receiving “Dear John” letters from the gal back home. It’s all the more remarkable, then, that director David Lean’s Brief Encounter remains a cherished British classic. The star-crossed couple are played by Trevor Howard as an idealistic doctor and father of two, and Celia Johnson as a guilt-ridden wife and mother. Both rightly earned Oscar nominations. Based on a one-act play by Noël Coward, it resonates because its lovers are so unassuming: average folks with nice spouses and who aren’t looking to stray. “I’m an ordinary woman,” Johnson’s character says in voiceover. “I didn’t think such violent things could happen to ordinary people.” Aside from a surfeit of Rachmaninoff music gumming up the score, Brief Encounter is a masterpiece of understatement. (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Max, Criterion Channel, Pluto and Plex)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Achingly poignant and visually sumptuous, this film established Wong Kar-wai as one of world cinema’s great directors; one need only check out Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk (see below) to understand how Wong’s command of tone continues to influence others. Set in Hong Kong circa the early 1960s, In the Mood for Love stars Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung as, respectively, Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan, neighbors in a bustling apartment building who slowly realize their spouses are having an affair with each other. Chow and Chan enact how they believe the affair might have started and, in the course of connecting through shared hurt, themselves fall in love. In the Mood for Love is enveloped in a mystery and lyricism that eludes most filmmakers. It also happens to be gorgeous, from vibrant period fashions to Mark Lee Ping-bing’s lush cinematography and Michael Galasso’s lovely score. Sure, there are some contrivances one must accept. The way our lovers learn of their spouses’ infidelity hinges on people being absurdly careless, and you’ve gotta wonder who would cheat on the supernaturally beautiful Cheung and Leung Chiu-wai. But why quibble when the results are this intoxicating? (Streaming on Max, Criterion Channel and YouTube)
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
Few moviemakers, particularly those out to make a love story, are so ballsy — or possibly recklessly tone-deaf — as to broach the topic of suicide. But writer-director Goran Dukić goes there in Wristcutters: A Love Story. Specifically, he imagines a sort of drab purgatory where suicides wind up after death, a place that, as one character observes, looks a lot like the land of the living, only a little shittier. Patrick Fugit portrays a young man who committed suicide in the wake of a breakup. In the afterlife, he finds a new love interest, played by Shannyn Sossamon, who insists her death was accidental and wants to speak to someone in charge. The premise is certain to offend some viewers, but Dukić’s earnestness and light touch go a long way toward infusing this low-budget indie with charm. (Streaming on Plex and YouTube)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to 2016’s Oscar-winning Moonlight again demonstrates the writer-director’s mastery at setting a mood. If Beale Street Could Talk is deeply romantic, its stunning color scheme and jazzy score reminiscent of In the Mood for Love (see above) without being derivative. The camera loves, and wisely lingers in closeup, on the faces of KiKi Layne and Stephan James as a young Black couple in 1970s Harlem ripped apart when the man is falsely accused of rape. “I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love … through glass,” Layne’s Tish tells us in voiceover during a prison visitation. Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, the film luxuriates in its romanticism without fully obscuring the author’s stark critique of American institutional racism. Layne and James are superb, but the entire cast is tremendous, particularly Regina King, whose gut-wrenching portrayal as Tish’s mother earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (Streaming on Hulu, Plex and YouTube)
Palm Springs (2020)
If you’ve seen 1993’s Groundhog Day (and if you haven’t, shame on you!), the premise is familiar: A hapless protagonist is condemned to repeat the same day over and over, or as Andy Samberg’s Nyles puts it, “one of those infinite time-loop continuums you’ve heard about.” While Palm Springs is obviously inspired by Groundhog Day, it is no knockoff. Nyles is spending a literal eternity as the plus-one at a Palm Springs, California, wedding where his girlfriend (Meredith Hagner) is a bridesmaid. Lo and behold, he inadvertently ensnares the bride’s cynical sister, played by Cristin Milioti, into that pesky time-loop continuum. Andy Siara’s screenplay is clever and endearingly silly, and first-time feature director Max Barbakow keeps things snappy. The picture’s secret weapons are Samberg and Milioti, their rapport making Palm Springs downright lovable. (Streaming on Hulu)
The Worst Person in the World (2021)
The sly joke of the film’s title is that its protagonist, 30-year-old Julie (a sensational Renate Reinsve), is pretty much prone to the same kindnesses and cruelties in all of us. She falls in love, but commitment freaks her out. She is self-confident but insecure, ambitious but indecisive, selfless and selfish in equal measure. And all of that comes into play as she veers back and forth between the affections of an older cartoonist (Anders Danielsen Lie) and an affable lunkhead (Herbert Nordrum) she meets at a party. What makes The Worst Person in the World such a joy, however, is the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic that director Joachim Trier and writer Eskil Vogt bring to this bold, shambling dramedy of love and life among Oslo’s creative class. At the very least, The Worst Person in the World will forever be memorable for one of the strangest (and most bathroom-centric) meet-cutes in movie history. (Streaming on Hulu, YouTube and Kanopy)
The Taste of Things (2023)
Here’s a cinematic delicacy for your Valentine’s Day feast. In the French period drama The Taste of Things, Benoît Magimel is Dodin, a chef and devoted epicure whose passion for food is rivaled only by his love for his longtime cook and companion, Eugénie, played by Juliette Binoche. Their relationship is warm, their chemistry palpable — it probably helps that Magimel and Binoche used to be a couple — and stuffed with food preparation. The movie revels in sensual pleasures. Food-porn aficionados in particular will be drooling at the culinary overload. Its opening scene, detailing the painstaking creation of a meal in Dodin’s well-equipped 19th-century kitchen, clocks in at more than 30 minutes. Famously, France goofed by submitting The Taste of Things as its Best International Feature entry to the 2024 Oscars instead of what proved be much more popular Anatomy of a Fall; that latter film racked up a handful of nominations while The Taste of Things didn’t even make the final cut of nominations. But that doesn’t diminish this luminous work from writer-director Trần Anh Hùng. (Streaming on Hulu and YouTube)
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)
It’s easy to sink one’s fangs into the sexually tinged pathos of vampire stories. It’s all right there on the surface, from necking that literally draws blood to the built-in tensions between an immortal suitor and their mortal object of desire. The cheekily titled Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person makes clear that first-time filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize is having fun tweaking tropes of the genre. In this French-language import from Canada (pre-tariff, no less!), a family of bloodsuckers is understandably frustrated with daughter Sasha (Sara Montpetit), a brooding Goth who cannot bring herself to hunt humans — even if it means her likely demise from starvation. There is only so much bagged blood they’re willing to indulge the girl. Things look up, however, when Sasha finds herself drawn to a bullied teenager, Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard, blessed with the hangdog expression of a modern-day Buster Keaton). This wry, funny and deceptively touching movie is a surefire crowd-pleaser. (Streaming on MUBI and YouTube)
This article appears in The OG Food Issue 2025.